“It’s like playing with a cocked pistol.”
Mayor Dedi Thomas used that description to explain the dangers with two traffic hazards in the City of Patterson.
Mayor Thomas informed the council about a recent meeting with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) regarding the hazards and the need for improvements on Hyers Street and Second Avenue and Drawdy Street.
The mayor and Blackshear and Pierce County officials recently went to Atlanta to talk to GDOT officials about various road projects and safety issues in the county and cities.
Hyers Street has been an issue for most of the past decade. A short portion of the road is paved from Georgia Highway 32 to Eagle Station. The dirt portion extends from there out in to the unincorporated area of the county and ends on Son Thomas Road near its intersection with U.S. Highway 84 near the CSX Railroad.
Hyers Street was identified as a possible bypass through the city when trains block the Main Street and Dixon Street Railroad Crossings.
The area is also prone to flooding stranding residents in the neighborhood.
School traffic routinely backs up from Drawdy Street down U.S. Highway 84 near the Patterson Elementary
Mayor Thomas pointed out both areas are safety hazards.
School traffic backs up along U.S. Highway 84 and Drawdy Street near Patterson Elementary School. An alternate route for school traffic is under consideration.
“It is just a matter of time before there is an emergency and someone can’t get help because the railroad crossings are blocked. It is a matter of time before there is a major accident because we have 150 cars lined up waiting to get to the school to pick up students,” he said.
The county offered to help with the Hyers Street project since part of it is in the county’s jurisdiction.
Mayor Thomas said a proposed solution to the school traffic issue would create a new road beginning on Second Avenue behind the old Byrd’s IGA Store and SweeT’s Cafe and coming out on Drawdy Street beside the elementary school.
Mayor Thomas said GDOT seemed receptive to both projects, but cautioned both proposals are in the “very preliminary” stages.
